Starting Over
by Ms. Videl Son
Summary: OneShot. Hinata, still frozen in her bow, didn’t move as Neji lowered his lips toward her. Whether she was approving or frightened of the gesture, Neji couldn’t say, but it was too late to stop now. NejiHina.


**Title:** Starting Over  
**Disclaimer:** So sue me.  
**Theme:**A New Beginning  
**Rating:** PG ( K ) – For the (light 'n fluffy) elements of cousin-on-cousin incest.  
**Spoilers:** If you didn't know that Hinata's hair got longer during the timeskip, then HA HA! Now you do **n.n** (btw, this has nothing to do with the story.)

**Summary:** OneShot. Hinata, still frozen in her bow, didn't move as Neji lowered his lips toward her. Whether she was approving or frightened of the gesture, Neji couldn't say, but it was too late to stop now. NejiHina.

Contest Entry One. To enter yourself, please visit "DateMe" at the link provided in my profile.

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With a series of clickety-clacks the first die rolled to a shuddering stop near the center of the board. Three black dots stared unblinkingly up at the ceiling, waiting to be counted and then scooped up again. The second bounced a little further and finally halted an inch away from the cardboard edge of the game; five concaved black spots this time. 

"One, two, three...," Neji muttered quietly as he slowly inched his silver figurine forward. "...seven, eight." The boy-genius of the Hyuuga clan scowled as his piece hovered over its randomly chosen space and leaned forward to get a better look at the writing scribbled across the tiny square. His frown deepened as the text came into perfect focus.

"Back to start, Neji-nii-san," Hinata said, badly concealing a smile behind her cup of steaming tea.

Neji returned the smile with his un-sportsmanly scowl, and inwardly cursed his cousin for not keeping her face to herself. Of course, even if her poor attempt at disguising her amused expression hadn't been obvious enough, the giggle at Neji's expense would have still given her away.

Behind her, the snow was piling up on the windowsill and, beyond that, the sloping grounds of the Hyuuga compound looked as if one of the family chefs had overdone the frosting on one of their cakes. Everything was bathed in a wedded white, even the more colorful and decorative aspects of the yard.

The small bridge over the koi pond was frosted over the same as everything else, covering the ornate wood and metalwork with a bland smear of white. The pond was usually meant for viewing the lazy turns of the large, speckled fish that populated the man-made habitat, but the small body of water was temporarily crusted over with a moderately thick layer of ice. The natural glaze was just opaque enough to see a vague outline of the fish, turning the water-dwellers into orange-spotted blurs that loitered just beneath the surface.

The drifts of snow were still undisturbed and fresh because it had begun falling at noon, a mere two hours before, and no one within the Hyuuga household was willing to chance the very real threat of snow blindness. The children tried, of course, so that they might celebrate their unscheduled teacher workday, but the parents kept them inside and away from the damaging white powder. The younger Hyuuga complained, naturally, that all of their classmates were outside taking full advantage of the sudden winter holiday, but the elder family members would always readily reply: "Hmph! You belong with your family where it's safe, not with _outsiders_."

Thus, until sometime around dusk, the snow blanketing the Hyuuga compound would remain pristine and undisturbed. After six or six-thirty, however, one would have to venture elsewhere for a glimpse of undisturbed purity.

Neji snorted as he leaned back and placed his marker near the outer edge of the board, as far away from the goal as possible. "Hmph!" he huffed, crossing his arms in defiance of the unfairness of it all.

Holding her scalding tea in a sleeve-covered hand, Hinata picked up the dice that Neji had previously discarded in the other and began to shake them in her cupped palm. With a practiced flick of the wrist, the two cubes of speckled plastic were released and fell to the table with their usual series of patterned clicks and clacks. When they stopped their jarring roll and all the dots were counted, the sum equaled ten.

Hinata, unlike her cousin, always counted the spaces before moving her piece forward. This game was no different from usual so she extended a finger from within her overwhelmingly large sleeve and plotted her course, counting as she went. "One, two, three, four..."

"...Ten!" she cried, triumphant, when her finger finally landed on the space that read "YOU WIN!" She grinned at her opponent, undeniably pleased with herself.

Neji turned away to glare out the window, arms crossed and brow furrowed, but found the intensity of the sunlight against the snow too much for his sensitive kekkai-genkai to handle. Blinking, he swivelled back around before commenting, "_I_ wanted to play chess."

Hinata had begun resetting the pieces for another game and, as she placed her marker next to his on the "START" square, stated, "I don't know how to play chess, Neji-nii-san."

Neji reached up to rub the spots out of his eyes with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. "Well, you should learn. It will improve your battle strategy and problem solving skills."

"Maybe you could teach me?" Hinata asked, her voice in closer proximity than Neji remembered it before closing his eyelids.

Opening his eyes, Neji impatiently waited for them to clear before his cousin was brought into full focus. Hinata was leaning towards him with an eager plea in her expression and an "I'm sorry for beating you" smile on her lips. She brought her sweater-covered hands up in front of her and pressed them together, then proceeded to bow to him in an informal way he had never seen her utilize before the elders.

"_Please_ teach me, Neji-nii-san?" she asked, peeking up at him from her bow. Neji might have called her demeanor impish if he hadn't known her better. "I'm sure you know _all_ the best strategies..."

'_Her lips are close enough to lean down and kiss_,' a little voice deep in the Hyuuga prodigy's mind whispered to him. '_True_,' his conscious mind replied, many years beyond being sickened at the thought of kissing his cousin. The thought had simply occurred to him too many times to be disturbing any longer. By now, it was actually very...tempting.

Without heeding his conscious mind's warnings of '_STOP! She might hate you!_,' Neji began to lean forward, inching closer and closer to his beautiful cousin. '_Yes, yes..._," his unconscious mind encouraged. '_Only a little closer..._'

Hinata, still frozen in her bow, didn't move as Neji lowered his lips toward her. Whether she was approving or frightened of the gesture, Neji couldn't say, but it was too late to stop now. He was _so close _to what he had been dreaming of for so long...

His lips connected and remained so for one, two...five seconds. Success!

Pulling back slightly, Neji whispered his instructions against Hinata's forehead. "Go get the game board and I'll teach you."

Hinata leapt away, nodding and blushing, and stumbled as she tried to stand up. "I'll g-go get it N-Neji-n-nii-san!"

As she scurried out of the room, Neji pondered whether or not the same chance for happiness would ever occur again. If not, he had wasted his opportunity to enjoy a full, mouth-on-mouth experience. Why had his courage failed him at such a crucial moment...?

A crash in the next room implied that Hinata had dropped the game and its pieces all over the floor. Knowing how jittery she had seemed when she'd escaped his presence, Neji wasn't particularly surprised by the new development.

With a self-satisfied smirk, Neji stood and began striding confidently towards the catastrophe. '_Now it's __**her**__ turn..._'

— — —

**Authors Notes:** Wow, NejiHina **n.n** That's different! I actually really like this couple (even if lots of others think it's gross), so it wasn't a huge challenge to write for them. I'm not sure if I've competently captured Neji, though, so please point out any mistakes I've made so that I'll know better for future reference **n.n**

Please, no flames about Hyuugacest being gross and me "going over to the NejiHina dark side" or anything stupid like that. If you don't like the pairing, then you shouldn't have read this far.

**:-P**

As mentioned in my little pre-notes above, this story is an entry for the DateMe January contest, which is NejiHina centered. The theme is "A New Beginning." Please locate the link to this contest in my personal profile **n.n**

_**. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .**_

–_It takes two to make one. NejiHina._


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